How to avoid spiritual nearsightedness

08May

I have been inspired by the latest sermon from my pastor, Mike Rue at our local church, Calvary Baptist Church, to do a short blog posting. The sermon series is a verse by verse study of the second epistle of Peter titled “Know”, as in to “know” God. This past Sunday we delved into chapter 1 verses 3-11. I know it seems like a large chunk of scripture to bite off at once, but the context seems to warrant the large bite. The section of verses teaches the believer how to recognize and experience spiritual growth. During the sermon the one verse that attracted my focus was verse 9.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

The context of this verse is a counter that refers to the qualities that mark the believer in Christ mentioned in the previous verses. A growing Christian should be one who supplements their faith in Christ with virtue, and virtue, with knowledge, and knowledge, with self-control, and self-control, with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. As Peter mentions in verse 8:

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just like The apostle John writes in 1 John 5. He writes these things so that you may know that you have eternal life. The apostle Peter also gives us encouragement in what are qualities of the believer in Jesus Christ. I pray that these qualities are found in me and by the grace of God increase my vision to 20/20.